In our ever-changing media landscape, coupled with increasingly powerful ePatient communities, a demand for new standards has arisen. As a result, Pharma [and in reality all marketers] must accelerate their skills in six key areas to separate their marketing communications, and become brand champions. Originally published in DTC Perspectives, March 2011.

1. Tough Demands to Galvanize
Marketing Communications
2011 Brand Champions Will Possess Six Key Skills
With a constantly evolving media landscape, a demand for new standards has arisen. As a result, marketers
must accelerate their skills in six key areas to separate their marketing communications and become brand
champions.
BY ELLEN HOENIG-CARLSON
W
orking in an ever-changing world of new media, tion, 2011 brand champions are challenged to create “shared
technologies and social platforms, coupled with value,”1 accelerating skills in six areas:
increasingly powerful ePatient communities, begs
1) Dynamic listening and action;
for new abilities. Stepping into the second decade of the 21st
2) Curating information and content marketing;
century, demanding new standards will separate the champions
3) Pinpointing boundary-less consumers;
from the also-rans.
4) Communicating for an ADHD world;
Spurring brand and patient success requires building on
5) Relinquishing the struggle for control;
wisdom from the past, while honing new abilities to educate,
6) Catalyzing growing teams of specialists.
motivate and converse with patients and their families. Savvy
marketers know that the 4P’s [Product, Promotion, Place and Fair warning: these critical skills won’t be best learned by
Price] – including disciplined analysis, insight mining and posi- reading a bestseller, taking in a webinar or delegating to a
tioning, strategy and objective setting, creative development junior team member or vendor; they require ongoing experi-
and media planning – have never been more critical. In addi- menting and doing. As Malcolm Gladwell points out, it takes
DTC Perspectives • March 2011 | 19

2. SKILLS OF A BRAND CHAMPION
10,000 hours of focused practice to become a consistently
great performer.
Skill 1: Listen and engage
Dynamic listening and action, real-time. Not just in
planned research settings, but in the real world – everyday.
Identifying opportunities and learning from ePatients and their
influencers. It’s not enough to go to a meeting once a quarter
to find out what has been said by your patient opinion leaders
(POL’s), ePatients and caregivers. Make dynamic engagement
part of your daily regimen, so that your listening is real time
and can enable actions to be planned and executed immedi-
ately – either by you or by the right specialists.
Astute marketers take dynamic listening seriously – they
know who to listen to, where to listen, what’s most impor-
tant to take note of, and are eminently geared to take action
by responding nimbly to new learning. Champion marketers
know that listening without action is as dangerous as acting in need or curious to learn. This requires understanding
without listening. Insightful listening can bump up creative or how to reach target consumers practically and emotionally:
messaging, clarify a product story that is not being fully under- assessing their media channel and platform preferences, tech-
stood, produce new ideas for product development and/or nology acumen, where they are along the treatment pathway,
service improvements, address new sub-segments, or provide and their most pressing needs.
improved, real-time customer service. It doesn’t necessarily mean dropping TV or print from your
With so many services at your fingertips, many free or low media mix, but reconsidering how to perfectly mesh creative
cost, don’t risk being slack. Whether via something as simple and media mix, branded and unbranded education, awareness
as setting up a Google alert or a hash tag search on Twitter, or and response, traditional off-line and Web media with new
purchasing services such as Radian6 or Nielsen BuzzMetrics, social media and mobile platforms.
stay on top of important brands, programs or topics. Media planning used to mean allocating spending between
a few mass market vehicles – a relatively easy exercise between
Skill 2: Curating information for content reach, frequency and cost effectiveness. Adapting the creative
Curating information and content marketing to was almost as easy. Now, just to reach a core segment of target
deliver value to patients, families and their commu- consumers, it’s necessary to address a more complex mix of
nities. It’s true, with the growth of the Internet and search online and off-line media and platforms – each with distinct
engines, copious amounts of health information abound. But creative and technical needs – without an easy formula.
today’s champion marketer must be able to scan the Web, Should you be actively considering mobile health technolo-
determine what information will be most helpful to high-value gies? Consider: while Web 2.0 continues to spur the ePatient
targets and bring it to their core customers in an easy-to-digest movement, 85 percent of U.S. consumers have cell phones
format. (93 percent of young adults aged 18-29) and this number is
Consumers don’t need more information, but the right growing. [This compares to only 66 percent of Americans who
information, at the right time, for their particular need. Curat- have broadband access.]
ing the right information isn’t easy – and takes time – but can More than 200 million mHealth applications are in use
be well worth the effort by being invaluable to patients and today, and that number is expected to increase threefold by
their families. 2012, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.
Be vigilant: curating and content marketing require a dif- Given the number of healthcare solutions possible via mobile
ferent mindset than traditional copy writing. The first is more
technologies and platforms, mHealth represents a new frontier.
educational in nature and the second, designed to get the read-
Further, the aging of tech-savvy baby boomers who want
er to take a specific action, is inherently more “salesy.” Both
to retain control over their lives will lead to greater adoption
are critical for successful marketers today; both can help the
of wireless and mobile health products, helping to reposition
other work harder. Each may beg for different media vehicles
healthcare around patients, according to a new report by MIT
and platforms to work best.
Enterprise Forum’s Northwest chapter.
Skill 3: Pinpointing consumers While connected health and health monitoring services will
Reaching boundary-less consumers, where they are fast become our future, still called for is perspective. There are
– and at that critical moment of truth – when they are still hurdles ahead before mobile usage for healthcare will be
20 | DTC Perspectives • March 2011

3. SKILLS OF A BRAND CHAMPION
widespread, including regulation, reimbursement
questions, and consumer behavior that prioritize
face-to-face connections for the majority of their
healthcare questions.
How will you surround and support your key
patients? How will you help patients and their
families better manage their health? How will you
help patients better communicate with their circle
of healthcare influencers? Consumers’ technology
choices will continue to change. Make sure you
stay up with the changes and embrace the right
ones quickly.
Skill 4: Succinct, meaningful communi-
cations
Communicating for an
ADHD-like world. People
want one-second sound bites
before they commit to investing
more time. Growing addiction
to new technology is further
feeding the consumer experi-
ence of being barraged 24/7. Is
the Internet Changing the Way You Sanofi-Aventis’ effort is a multi-channel,
Think? edited by John Brock- multi-platform approach, designed to meet
man, shows a continual theme consumers where they are.
among both enthusiasts and
skeptics: the Internet isn’t chang-
Coke? New Tropicana carton? Motrin IB “baby-
ing the way we think, it is exac-
wearing” campaign? Today’s brand champions
erbating the deceptively simple
must respond quickly, integrating new learning
challenge of “attention manage-
while the train is moving.
ment”…the new Darwinian
Build trust by stepping into real-time with
imperative may be “the survival
consumers. Don’t wait for FDA social media
of the focused.”
regulations; join the many that are starting to take simple steps.
Stimulating patient and caregiver curiosity, learning and
Let some conversations flow; respond to some conversations.
action, staying aware of the onslaught of messaging and com- Encourage co-creation where possible. Bump up value-add
munications is not easy. Cut through the cacophony by marketing and support – consistently and genuinely. In addi-
helping customers focus on what’s important. Speak in their tion to keeping your ears in great shape, adopt a language and
language, learn how they listen, absorb and want to interact. voice of authenticity, and consistently deliver education, sup-
This begs for marketers to know targets even more deeply, port, compassion, and customer care for the patient and the
prioritize ever more accurately, and make hard choices to keep community.
it simple and to the point! [KISS] This is the way to be part of Provide as much personalization and two-way conversation as
the solution and not part of the noise. Your patients will thank possible – that’s what consumers want, and that’s what they trust.
you and maybe even connect with you.
Skill 6: Keeping everything in lockstep
Skill 5: Turn control over to consumers Catalyzing growing teams of specialists, fostering
Relinquish the struggle for control. Controlled cus- focused collaboration, while seeking new partnerships
tomer communication is a dream from the past. One result of to grow your brands. It used to be hard enough to integrate
the Internet revolution is that “the people formerly known as seamless execution across professional, consumer, and PR
the patients/audience” became publishers and broadcasters – agency partners across media channels of awareness, off-line
and pundits and critics.2 and online relationship marketing, Web SEO, SEM and Web
Who owns a brand anyway? Turns out that customers are campaigns, IVR, and database management. Now it’s all of
the primary force – not the manufacturer. Remember new this, plus staying current with emerging specialties, and devel-
DTC Perspectives • March 2011 | 21

4. SKILLS OF A BRAND CHAMPION
oping and executing programs across the multitude of shifting Twitter, Facebook, blogs, using the GoMeals free app or visit-
social and mobile health applications. ing branded and unbranded websites, such as Cooking with
Keeping a brand, its specialists and partners in lockstep takes the Sorvinos, WhyInsulin.com, a1cchampions.com, STAND-
new facilitation and remote-coordination skills. It also requires forDiabetes.org [Start Taking Action Now for Diabetes] or
traditional integration and team-building skills ramped up to Lantus.com. Interestingly, Novo Nordisk, Roche and others
an entirely new level to insure seamless delivery and a focused are also doing more vs. less to reach out to patients with diabe-
brand message, look and feel. tes. Credit the strong diabetes patient community for spurring
While it used to be relatively easy to find the required innovation.
experts, now, as technologies and platforms evolve at light- Champions know that there’s nothing new about upgrad-
ning speed, identifying the real experts in each is no small task. ing and honing new skills – it’s the practice of a lifetime.
Too many specialists and agencies too easily call themselves For DTC marketers, the task gets more complex every year.
“expert” – i.e., “social media expert;” look for the ones that Choosing what to learn, where to focus, when to bring in
are really partaking and have been doing so consistently and new expertise will be a big part of what boosts the champs
effectively over time. over the finish. DTC
One company that seems to be accelerating the use of these
six skills, innovating, listening and acting consistently more Ellen Hoenig-Carlson is founder of AdvanceMarketWoRx, a
brand champion consulting firm known for professional and consumer
than others in pharma is Sanofi-Aventis with their multi-
healthcare disciplines, powering brand growth through traditional and
channel, multi-platform, branded and unbranded work for non-traditional marketing, leveraging critical customer interpretations
diabetes. Recently they launched discussdiabetes.com, a blog and insights throughout strategy and execution. She can be reached at
to improve listening, dialogue, and support of the diabetes her blog http://blog.AdvanceMarketWoRx.com, http://twitter.com/
community. [Time will tell how much real-time learning and ellenhoenig, or by telephone at (609) 333-0549.
action is spread throughout the organization in response to
their community listening.] Their diabetes effort is multi-chan- Endnotes
1 HBR January-February 2011, Michael E. Porter, The Big Idea: Creating Shared
nel, multi-platform, designed to meet consumers where they Value
are – whether a patient prefers YouTube or watching video, 2 Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet Project Online Health Seeking, 10/2010
M A R K Y O U R C A L E N D A R
Marketing to the
Digital Consumer
A Healthcare Perspective
October 12–13, 2011
Crowne Plaza
Fairfield, NJ A DTC Perspectives Inc.
Conference
22 | DTC Perspectives • March 2011